Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Hot News: Lotus Confirms New V8 and City Car

British maker Lotus has confirmed that it will be building its own V8 engine for its upcoming range of new supercars. But at the other end of the line-up, it has also confirmed that a new city car will go on sale in the UK in 2014 too.

The new engine will be 4.8-litre V8, designed and built in Hethel, Norfolk. It will weigh around 170kg – that's 80kg lighter than the engine from the Lexus IS-F that was originally going to be used. The latter was vetoed by prospective buyers who thought the reborn firm should produce its own engines from the ground-up.

With a flat-plane crankshaft and a dry sump, the V8 will develop 570bhp and rev to 9,000rpm in standard tune. That figure will rise to 620bhp in even faster R versions.

The engine will be fired up on a test bench on August 18 and used in a new LMP2 racing car. It will then appear in the Esprit – due in 2013 in coupe and convertible form – and then the Elite 2+2 drop-top and Eterne four-door coupe. The engine will be a modular unit, so a four-cylinder unit (for the next-generation Elise) and a V6 will be produced from it too.